Author Archives: J.P. Donlon

In his recently published book, Character: The Ultimate Success Factor, Jack Phillip London, the former CEO of CACI International, a $3.8 billion technology and professional services company, argues that there is really one thing that guarantees success: character.

For Chief Executive's seventh annual index, we ranked the top 100 public companies of the S&P 500 where the CEO has been in place for at least three years. Similarly, we also ranked the top 40 mid-market companies (see p. 43) from the Russell 3000 in two tiers: upper mid-market companies with revenues between $500 million and $1 billion, and a lower mid-market tier of companies with revenues between $100 million and $500 million.

Since the 1980s, creeping precedent has allowed federal agencies to amass considerable regulatory and enforcement power. Undaunted by recent defeats in the courts, the SEC wants to become both judge and jury. But one small cap hedge fund managed to stop them in their tracks.

Two external forces are driving CEOs to distraction. One is the fact that the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) was built on shifting sands, and the other is the regulatory overreach of federal agencies such as the SEC, EPA, NLRB and others whose further intrusions into the marketplace are making business leaders cautious and lawyers rich. Combined, these unholy forces add to the uncertainty plaguing the U.S. economy.